The Maid of Ballymacool by Jennifer Deibel

 

The Maid of Ballymacool - Jennifer Deibel - 5 Stars - Full of mystery, romance, history, faith, cinderella vibes - so GOOD!

The Maid of Ballymacool by Jennifer Deibel is one of my favorite books of 2023 so far! Full of mystery, romance, history, emotions, faith, secrets, Cinderella vibes, a swoon-worthy male lead and a villainous headmistress -- this story has all the makings to be one of my favorite books of the year! 5 stars!

I have loved both of Jennifer’s books so far, A Dance in Donegal and The Lady of Galway Manor, but The Maid of Ballymacool is my favorite one yet! There was something about Michael and Brianna that just made them unforgettable and unique.

Set in the 1930s in Ireland, Brianna Kelly was abandoned at Ballymacool House and Boarding School as a baby. She’s worked there her entire life and the Headmistress, Maureen Magee, runs the school and is a force to be reckoned with. Miss Magee also raised Brianna since she was a baby who was left on her doorstep. She is so cruel to Brianna and we are trying to figure out why she holds such a grudge against her – because it’s obvious there’s some internal turmoil secretly stored with Miss Magee about Brianna. Michael Wray comes to Ballymacool to oversee his unruly cousin and from the very beginning he stole my heart in this story. He meets Brianna, they connect immediately, and things take off from here as Michael shows his loyalty and heart throughout the story. He is truly the hero in this story and I LOVED it! What they discover together throughout this book changes so much in Ballymacool House and Boarding School.

The reason I loved Michael so much in this is he showed such love, loyalty, strength, commitment. He was not afraid to stand up for what is right, especially to the headmistress. Jennifer pulled Michael in the story at all the right moments when I, as a reader, would think “I hope Michael is about to show up!” and he did! He just has such a tender, loving heart and respect for others that I loved. He also had a good foundational faith that I really appreciated.

Brianna was such a complex character, and I was so intrigued from the very beginning. Her story really reminded me of Cinderella in many ways. She was passive because of all the hardship she had in her life and Michael helped her really open herself up to everyone else and be able to grow. Also loved the side characters, specifically Finnuala.

Overall, this is my favorite of Jennifer’s books so far and I highly recommend if you love Historical Romance! (Also, loved seeing a couple of characters from A Dance in Donegal here! 😊 )

Thank you to Baker Publishing, Revell and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy to honestly read and review.

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4926442550
Amazon: https://amzn.to/44oTKqC
Baker Book House: https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/465113
YouTube Review Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuFKv2eeju0

Counted with the Stars by Connilyn Cossette

 

Counted with the Stars - Connilyn Cossette - 5 Stars - I am completely blown away. A beautiful biblical fiction story.

Counted with the Stars by Connilyn Cossette was Connilyn's debut novel and WOW I was really blown away with how connected I was to these characters and story! I just love the time period around Exodus in the Bible so this was for me!❤️ Love that we got a little romance in this too.

This is all about a young Egyptian woman named Kiya who was sold into slavery by her father and was forsaken by the man she was supposed to marry. She becomes friends with a young Hebrew woman, flees with the Hebrews after going through the plagues described in the book of Exodus. Will she turn back to Egypt or will she surrender her life to God?

This was beautiful in every way. Very biblically accurate and transports you right into the culture of the Egyptians and Hebrews. I was so intrigued by the Egyptian's view of the plagues too. I read this super fast and look forward to more by this author!

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4796500698
Amazon: https://amzn.to/44IeysL
Baker Book House: https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/38110
YouTube Review Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuFKv2eeju0

Memory Lane by Becky Wade

 

Memory Lane - Becky Wade - 4 Stars - A great start to a new series! 

Memory Lane by Becky Wade is the first book in a new series, A Sons of Scandal Romance series. Set on a remote island in Maine, we follow Remy Reed, who spends most of her time working on wood sculptures and spending quiet time to herself. One day, she sees an unknown man swimming in the ocean, struggling to stay afloat. She goes out to sea and rescues this mystery man and everything takes off from here. We see Remy, her friend Leigh and a local EMT working to help this man get better, but he has a serious case of amnesia so they end up with the name “Jonah” for him until they can reveal his real identity.

This story took me through it ya’ll! 4 stars! I was mostly connected to our main guy here and his story – as the mystery of him and his family really interested me along the way. Remy and him start to get to know each other and we start to see a bit of “enemies to lovers” going on here! I thought at first they had some great chemistry and really enjoyed seeing them interact while he was trying to get his memories back. I specifically loved seeing even though “Jonah” didn’t have any memory of his life or who he was, he felt like faith was important to him and he felt the urge inside him to go to church and we see him do that.

While I never fully connected to Remy and would have liked a bit more faith content/revelations/in depth discussions for her in this story, the journey she takes with “Jonah” was special and I enjoyed seeing all the emotions taking place. A wild ride indeed!

Once “Jonah’s” identity was revealed, everything gets CRAZY with his family fast! We are learning all about his parents, their drama, and the reason this is a “Sons of Scandal” story! I did like seeing his brother Jude and him together – can’t wait for his story as future books come out. His family dynamic was very interesting and wild!

One item I did really enjoy was seeing Remy help this older man Wendell cleaning and organizing his home and trying to help him find an old girlfriend of his. That was so sweet.

This book does deal with some heavier topics, including sexual assault, trauma, infidelity, affairs, and suicide.

Overall, I really enjoyed Memory Lane and am so grateful to have read an advanced reader copy for honest review. Thank you, Becky Wade!

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5281754462
Amazon: https://amzn.to/43qRJJ2
Becky's Website to Order: https://beckywade.com/home/memory-lane/
YouTube Review Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuFKv2eeju0

Daughter of Eden: Eve's Story by Jill Eileen Smith

 

Daughter of Eden - Eve's Story - Jill Eileen Smith - 4 Stars - What a great story that shows us what it could have been like during the times of Adam and Eve.

Daughter of Eden: Eve’s Story by Jill Eileen Smith shows us what it could have possibly been like during the time of Adam and Eve, all surrounding the time during the book of Genesis in the Bible. This was my first book by her and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this story.

It is a biblical fiction featuring real bible “characters”, primarily Adam, Eve, their children (mostly Cain and Abel). We also have chapters from Lucifer and how he fell and became the devil – the deceptive, cunning serpent. It follows many year, encompassing most of Adam and Eve’s life.

This book is a fictionalized work of what it could have been like during the time of Adam and Eve at the creation of the world. It was really interesting to see how they may have spoke to one another, dialogue together, with God and with their children. It was also interesting to see how they may have ate, figured out how to be “the first” parents of the world etc. I feel like the author did a great job creating a story for us, while interweaving God’s truths and scripture throughout the story.

Seeing how Eve may have reacted or handled her sin when she made the mistake of eating the fruit and being deceived by the serpent was probably the most interesting for me. I had some mixed feelings on some of how Adam and Eve would have interacted together, but overall enjoyed the story and portrayal. It was emotional to read the depiction of the fall of humanity – I feel like Jill did a wonderful job with that description.

The best part about this story is it made me go back to Genesis and read my bible to see God’s word and compare it to this fictionalized work. Very thought provoking as many other reviewers have stated. To see how Adam and Eve could have possibly grieved what Cain did to Abel was also very eye opening.

Overall, the author did a great job portraying what it could have been like during this time and many parts touched my heart and sprit. The ending was beautiful and made me a bit emotional as a woman because she so beautifully portrayed how we are not perfect, but God still loves us. Thank you to Baker Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy to honestly read and review.

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5059247536
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3pPZCtZ
Baker Book House: https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/465082
YouTube Review Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuFKv2eeju0

When in Rome by Sarah Adams

 

When in Rome - Sarah Adams - 4 Stars - A fun rom-com!

What a fun rom-com! I laughed SO much! While this does have quite a bit of mild language, I really enjoyed our main couple and had a lot of fun listening to the audiobook! This is a clean, closed door secular romance.

This is all about Ameila Rose, also known as Rae Rose to her fans. She is a very famous music artist from Nashville and she is just REALLY burned-out from so many years of trying to maintain her pop princess image. She loves the Audrey Hepburn movie, Roman Holiday, so inspired by that movie, she takes off in the middle of the night for a break to Rome.....Rome, Kentucky that is. She finds herself in her car, broken down in front of Noah Walker's house. He doesn't want to deal with celebrity problems but he agrees to help Amelia out. She isn't able to stay in a local hotel in town....so she ends up staying in Noah's guest room. for the 2 weeks she is there waiting for her car to be fixed. They start to get to know each other and things go on from there....

Overall I had so much fun with this book by Sarah Adams. It had a cute southern hospitality vibe with many of the side characters, I loved Noah and Amelia's banter back and forth (SO FUNNY), Noah's sisters were awesome, (really the entire town was great!), and it just had the charming, cozy small town story vibe I love. The conversations cracked me up. I loved the ending too. Very quick and entertaining read.

The sexual content was not over the top, but did ride a fine line up until the "fade to black" scenes. But I am also thankful she writes these books as "closed door" because I didn't feel uncomfortable reading the romantic bits and could actually enjoy the story without worrying about smut. I didn't love the number of curse words in this book, she certainly likes the word s***, lol. But I can look past it because the characters and story were really fun and entertaining.

4 stars and I'll be reading The Cheat Sheet next!

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5351983225
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3JWNpuc
YouTube Review Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuFKv2eeju0

The Wonderland Trials by Sara Ella

 

The Wonderland Trials - Sara Ella - 4 Stars - Lovers of all things Alice in Wonderland will LOVE this! (Book 1 in The Curious Realities Series)

If you are a lover of all things Alice in Wonderland, you will enjoy this new, fun Alice inspired Young Adult Christian Fantasy story! While the first part was a bit slow for me to get into, by the 50% mark I was invested in the story. Fans of dystopian favorites like The Hunger Games will also probably enjoy this because it has a "trial" game that gave me Hunger Games vibes. The whole time you never know who to trust, what's real vs fictional, what "reality" you are in and it's just a very unique story I think many will enjoy. I also kind of had "Caraval" vibes too from the writing style - really enjoyed that aspect.

This story is all about Alice who just wants to escape her normal life in Oxford and find her parents who abandoned her 10 years ago. She gets more than she bargained for though when her older sister, Charlotte, is arrested for having the "Wonder" Gene - the key to unlocking the curious "Wonderland Reality". Alice must play for "Team Heart" in this year's annual - and deadly - Wonderland Trials. She must find her way to Wonderland through the trials but nothing is what it seems.... People go missing. Her and her team try to solve the clues and find the missing players but who can she trust along the way?

I'm not always the biggest fantasy reader but I am starting to find ones I do enjoy and this one ended up being a great foundational book for the "Curious Realities" series. We had good world building, easy to understand details and characters and everything was explained very well. We had some Christian allegory I could see, especially toward the end. That was nice to see.

We also had a bit of a budding romance toward the end - very light - but hope to see that expanded in future books. I don't know that I ever fell in love with our characters per say, but mostly enjoyed the fantasy element and storyline here.

The ending leaves on a bit of cliffhanger so I am so glad there will be a book 2 so we can continue on in this world! If you would like an engaging fantasy read with a Wonderland twist, pick this up!

Goodreads Review:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4803124508
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3JVoR4V
YouTube Review Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuFKv2eeju0

Murder in a Scottish Garden by Traci Hall

 

Murder in a Scottish Garden - Traci Hall - 3.5 Stars - Enjoyed a bit more than book 1! (Book 2 in A Scottish Shire Mystery Series)

Book 2 in the Scottish Shire Mystery Series, Paislee, owner of her specialty sweater and yarn shop, Cashmere Crush, is a chaperone on her son's field trip. She hears a gun shot and sees a man fall through the hedges. Throughout the book they are trying to figure out who killed this man, who was the cousin to her landlord that's been trying to evict her, Shawn Marcus. Shawn is afraid someone is trying to kill him and his mother so Paislee starts trying to investigate the murder and everything gets crazy from there.

I liked this one a little more than book 1, we have more of a focus on the mystery here then their family dynamics, but I still want a romance for Paislee! I will continue on listening to these audiobooks because they are very bingeable :) Love the Scottish vibes and accents, as always. Looking forward to see what happens next with our characters. I did like the family aspect of Paislee, her son and grandfather. We get pretty attached to our main characters more in this story as we grow to know them and their backgrounds. Paislee is a very realistic character trying to balance being a single mom, small business owner and taking care of her family.

Overall, enjoyed this and plan to continue on.

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5281755393
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Df24xk
YouTube Review Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuFKv2eeju0